Shazam Thing

Shazam Thing
Originally uploaded by Lady, That's My Skull.

God, I found this funny!

Eternals

I've picked up Neil Gaiman's run on the Eternals and I'm loving it. The artwork is superb, the story is engaging and poetic. It's typical Gaiman. I also picked up Jeff Smith's Captain Marvel... Now I like Bone a lot. I'm thinking I need to get my copy of Bone back from my brother-in-law so I can read it again. But his Captain Marvel is very Bonesque... seems like a very simple store on the surface, but lots of "Oh, wow" moments. I'm glad I picked it up...

Now I need to pick up the Essential Captain Marvel in trade... saw it on the shelf at the comic shop I went to. In my mind, I'm corrupted by Alan Moore's run on Miracleman and Tom Strong. I know Jeff is sticking to the spirit of the old Capt'n, but some of story elements and ideas in Alan's Miracleman is burned into my skull... And Neil Gaiman did a few Miracleman stories after Alan left... very good stories, considering it was an hard act to follow.

Essential Fantastic Four, Vol. 1

Been reading through Essential Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 the last couple of days. Now, I'm not a Marvel zombie, but I did read some FF back in the 80's -- I've always had a fondness for the team. I've always been a DC reader -- Swamp Thing, Superman, Phantom Stranger, Batman, etc. But I decided to give Stan Lee and Jack Kirby a chance and let me say, I haven't been disappointed. Jack Kirby's creatures are cool... I can really see his influence, especially on Mike Mignola's artwork and for that I'm appreciative.

The funny thing is, with Stan Lee's writing, I get ideas for other stories... for instance, when the FF first encounter the Skrull, 3 of them were left on Earth after the first invasion attempt, hypnotized in to thinking they were cows. Not being a Marvel zombie, did a little research and found out they broke the spell and came back later in another story. But I wondered if they mated with normal cows during that hypnotic stage, why types of creatures would have resulted -- Shape shifting cows? Super-smart mutant cows? :) This in itself wouldn't be the story, but the backdrop for something more interesting... I'm wondering if there's enough loose threads like this for an interesting non-super-hero types of stories.

Rate: B+

DC Showcase Presents: Phantom Stranger, part 3

Finished it today! Great Len Wein stories. Terrific art work by both Jim Aparo and Tony DeZuniga. I'll have to pick up a few more Showcase trades; it's a nice format and a great read, especially when I don't want to spend $7+ dollars per comic to read a continuous arc.

With as the series develops, the stories are no longer formulaic. But with Len and his story-telling style, there seems to be more of a back-story to the Phantom Stranger; just not a supernatural super-hero that show up out of the moment of kismet -- his word, not mine, but I love it.

Rate: A+

DC Showcase Presents: Phantom Stranger, part 2

Hadn't had much time to read my copy of DC Showcase Presents: Phantom Stranger, but I've read through the first few issues... It's a little formulaic at this point, 3 mysteries, one solved by the Phantom Stranger, one solved by Dr. Thirteen, then the over-arching mystery that requires both the Phantom Stranger and Dr. Thirteen to solve. So far it's a good read, but can't wait till I get into the later issues with Neal Adams and Jim Aparo artwork.

DC Showcase Presents: Phantom Stranger

Picked this up last week; started reading it. I'm glad that this is back in print, even though it's in black-and-white format. I've been missing a few of the earlier issues and it's great to finally read them...


I'll talk more about it in a little bit...

Pirates & Octopi

From the 100 Pirates in 100 Days project, I give you #13, this cool octopi-pirate... I think the flag is very cool as well.